Current Information:

Age-24

Enlisted-London

Bailleul Communal Cemetery, France

On 26th May, 1915, the 9th London battalion, then part of 13 Brigade, 5th Division moved into trenches at Voormezeele just to the south of Ypres where they remained for the rest of the month and all of  June, manning the front line and support trenches and providing working parties for various tasks. William Hopkinson died from wounds on 6th June but the battalion diary provides no further information concerning his death. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.